Jeremiah a



JEREMIAH A. MARDEN, OF NEWBURYPORT,

AND HENRY A. BUTTERS, OF HAVERHILL,

MASSACHUSETTS.

MACHINE FOR SPLITTING- LEATHER.

Specification of Letters Patent No.

To all 'whom 'Zt 'may concer/L:

Be it known that we, JEREMnii-r A. MAR- DEN, of Newburyport, and HENRYA. BUT- TERs, of Haverhill, in the county of Essex and State ofMassachusetts, have invented an Improved Leather-Splitting Machine; andwe do hereby declare that the same is fully described and represented inthe following specification and the accompanying drawings, letters,figures, and references thereof.

Of the said drawings, Figure 1 denotes a top view of our said machine.Fig. 2 is an elevation of the right end of it. Fig. 3 is an elevation ofthe left end of it. Fig. 4 is a front elevation; and Fig. 5 is a rearelevation of it. Fig. 6 is a transverse vertical and central section ofit. Fig. 7 is a longitudinal section taken through the feeding rollers.

In these drawings A represents the form of the machine, it being made tosupport the carriage B of a long cutting knife C. See Figs. l, 3, 5, and6. The said carriage is supported on ways so as to be capable of havinga vertical and longitudinal motion 1mparted to it by means of aconnecting rod D, and a bell crank E, they being applied together and tothe carriage and a driving shaft F, as seen in Figs. 2 and 5 of thedrawings, said shaft being arranged as shown in the last of saidfigures.

The knife C works between feeding rollers (as seen at Gr and H in Fig.6). The lower feed roller (H) is formed in sections or consists of aseries of small rollers a, a, (see Figs. 6 and 7 which are arranged endto end and supported horizontally within a stationary frame I, which isopen at top and bottom, so as to allow them not only to rest upon anelastic roller K, but to come into contact with the sheet of leather,when it is passed between them and the roller G. The elastic roller K,may be constructed of vulcanized india rubber or other suitable elasticmaterial, applied to and around a horizontal shaft The roller K havingan elastic surface will notl only force the several rollers a., a,toward the roller G but permit such rollers, a, a, to accommodatethemselves to the varying thickness of the skin or hide of leather whileit is being passed between them. One of the journals of the said upperfeed roller G has a pinion L affixed to it. This pinion engages with aratchet gear 13,756, dated November 6, 1855.

M turning on a stationary journal N, as seen in Fig. 2. With the saidratchet gear two pawls O, P operate, they being jointed to a frame Qwhich is applied to the main frame so as to be capable of slidingvertically, and is raised up and down by means of the driving shaft F. Aspring, cl, connects the two pawls O, P, and draws them toward theirratchet, one of them being a dra-wing pawl and the other an impellingpawl.

From the above it will be seen that while the movements of the knife C(by which there is imparted to such knife a drawing stroke, while a sideof leather is being forced against it) are controlled by a bell crank Fthe movements of the frame Q and its pawls are also controlled by acrank on the same shaft wi th the crank E.. As the two cranks areapplied to one shaft, their arcs of rotation in any period of time, arealways equal, and pawl carriages or frames, the motion of eithercarriage or frame varies during each notation of its crank, it being theleast while the crank is passing what is termed the dead centers andgreatest when at 90 therefrom. The two cranks should be so arranged ontheir shaft that during their' rotations they may produce correspondingvariable movements, both of the knife and upper or driving feed roller,the feeding of the leather toward the knife not only growing slower asthe longitudinal movement of the knife decreases but increasing inproportion to the increase of motion of the knife. The pawls beingcaused to alternately push and draw on their ratchets will produce arotary movement of the same in one direction. Such effecting a similarmovement of the upper feed roller, but in the opposite direction. It hasbeen found in those leather splitting machines where the feed rollersmove at a regular velocity, and the knife at a variable speed, thatthere results what are termed by the workmen creases or ridges in theleather', or in other words, the cut is not smooth and even, itsunevenness resulting from t-he variable pressure or condensation of theleather against the knife edge.

By making the feed rollers to operate with a variable motion inaccordance with that of the knife as hereinbefore described theunevenness of cut above alluded to will be prevented from taking place.

A roller R is arranged with respect to the feed rollers G, H, as seen inFigs. l, 4L and 6, it being niade to freely revolve in its bearings andto carry on one end of it a ratchet, e. Between the roller R, and thefeed rollers and close to the bite of the latter is a wire or rod, S,bent in the form of a bell crank and supported by journals extendingbearings in the upright parts f, f, of the frame. One of the saidjournals, g, is carried through its part f, and has an arm 7L extendedfrom it to and through a tilting lever z' applied to a catch pawl orlever T, arranged and made to turn upon a fulcrum as seen at K in Fig.3. The fulcruni of the tilting lever is shown at l, in Fig. 3, and saidlever extends beyond its catch pawl T, and operates in connection with acurved arm or cani u, affixed to and made to rise above one end of theknife carriage, as seen in Figs. 3 and 5. l/Vhen a hide or sheet ofleather is passed into the machine it is carried under and against boththe roller R and the wire S it being held against the roller R by anattendant should there be any cockles in the hide, such as would beliable to produce wrinkles under the action of the feed rollers theywill be carried against the wire or rod S, and will force it upward, andso as to cause the arm 7L to be elevated so as to throw or permit thecatch pawl T to fall down upon its ratchet and thereby arrest thernoveinent of the roller R, and in consequence of the same causefriction to be generated upon the skin so as to retain it or hold itback sufficiently to enable the feed to draw out and reduce the cockieor cockles. As soon as they are taken out the wire S will fall and causethe catch pawl to be thrown out of action upon its ratchet, (theelevation of the pawl above the ratchet being insured by the action ofthe cam u on the tilting lever, when said cam is carried against saidlever by the knife carriage, which it will be when the tilting lever isdepressed into the path of the cam.

We claim- Coinbining with the feeding apparatus a mechanismsubstantially as described by which the leather may be restrained in itsdelivery so as to effect the reduction of cockles, as hereinbeforespecified.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our signatures thisseventeenth day of May, A. D. 1855.

J EREMIAH A. MARDEN. HENRY A. BUTTERS.

Witnessesi R. H. EDDY, F. P. HALE, J r.

